Human Right Watch Organization - Essay Example

Total Price: $20   Messages new total  Topic:  Human Trafficking Instructions: Unless people pressure their governments to call for stricter laws and more enforcement of laws to punish traffickers, human trafficking will continue to grow. A number of Web sites of advocacy groups and NGOs are committed to educating the public about the horrors of the trafficking of women and children and enlisting support. Among the most active ones are these: Human Rights Watch (www.hrw.org) Anti-Slavery International (www.antislavery.org) Save the Children (www.savethechildren.org) The Protection Project (www.protectionproject.org) Global Movement for Children (www.unicef.org/gmfc/) United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) (www.unicef.org) Using three or four of the following criteria or some you develop in your own, write an evaluation argument about the effectiveness of the public appeal of the Web site of one of these organizations: A. Functional and attractive layout and design for the site. B. Clear explanation of the problem. C. Strong appeal to the readers’ emotions, sympathies, and values D. Good credibility or currency of the information presented. E. Clear requests and directives indicating what the organization wants readers to do. Argue that this organization’s site does or does not measure up to your criteria. In your evaluation argument, show why you would or would not recommend this site to someone who is seeking to understand trafficking of women and children. I choose www.hrw.org as a web site that I will discuss in my essay. This is the draft for my essay. Human Right Watch Organization As we all know, human rights violations has been a popular issue in our world today. There have been numerous cases in different countries where atrocities committed against human beings are committed. Faces of human rights violations appear as rape, human trafficking, massacre, genocide, slavery etc. These acts are considered as a crime, knowing that a person is not a product that can be bought, enslaved or possessed in exchange for money. Worse, statistics of human trafficking has shown increase as time goes by. As a result, there are organizations that came out that deeply care about the issue of human trafficking. Their main objective is to create advocacy against this crime by raising the public’s awareness. The organizations used technology to disseminate information faster by creating websites ( which is accessible online) that would educate people around the world about the negative impact of human trafficking by the click of a mouse. In this essay, the focus of discussion is about a human rights organization called the Human Right Watch, its organization, goals, effort and the difference they are making to help save people’s lives through their website. First, the website Human Right Watch is an organization that protects and supports the right of human being. This is evident on their home page as you would see pictures of incidents where people’s human rights are being violated .The Home Page captures the incident at the Guinea Massacre last September 28. A military man is seen holding a stick hitting a restrained civilian on the head. The caption itself is provoking “Guinea: September 28 Massacre was Premeditated”. This implies that the government or other organizations have an underhand in the said event. Under the caption, there is a subtitle that declares that an investigation has been made and many women were victims of rape. In short, the website mainly focus on how people are being violated, how to support them, and even ask the government to give justice by the law. Under the featured incident, updates from different countries such as Guinea, France and India are also shown to give the browser a bird’s eye-view of human rights violations in some places of the world. Aside from the aforementioned functions of the website, it also states that the organization will investigate the victims of the human rights, including those who are violated by human trafficking. The feature story “Lost in Transit” investigates the plight of unaccompanied migrant in Charles de Gaulle Airport” children. Recommendations were made to various organizations such as Red Cross and European Union to prevent human trafficking in this scenario. Another call to action by the website is the second Mine Ban Treaty conference that took place in Colombia in 1997, Human Right Watch organization by its representative Kenneth Roth has invited the U.S. government to participate in that event. The said conference discussed how innocent people might be victim of the active bombs placed on after-war regions. Aside from the up-to-date coverage, the explanation given by the website about different human rights issues is very clear. When I browsed the website for the first time, I realize that the website gives complete details of the problem by describing the situation completely. The information given is very specific which also gives additional details for readers to understand thoroughly. Case in point is the involvement of the United States on Land Mine ban. Through this website, readers can access the letter given by the representative of Human Right Watch Kenneth Roth. The document presents a very incisive appeal which clearly describes the human right problem. As an audience, I appreciate the honesty given by this organization. There have been many organizations that appeal to people to act on behalf of an issue but they do not give any background to the audience, asking leaving the audience to research on the issue by themselves. On the page that presents a success story, a gruesome interview with a 15 year old rape victim was presented. The black-and-white picture shows only the hand of a child ( rape victim) held by a woman. The reader is left on his own to visualize how the innocence of the child was taken away by soldiers. One more thing, the picture also shows how the website respects the privacy of the victims by protecting their identity. In relation to this, if people are given only few information about a problem, an audience cannot clearly see the purpose of the organization thereby defeating the primary goal of creating advocacy about an issue. Many people do not want to get involved unless they see the whole picture. On the contrary, reading articles that this website presents compels one into action through its complete reporting of the details. Next, the Human Right Watch website also effectively makes a strong appeal to reader’s emotions and sympathies which leads to realignment of one’s personal values. Foremost of the value I have inculcated through the issues encountered on this website is the value of compassion .In the main page of the organization’s project, we can see pictures that show victims of human right violations in different situations. The picture given by the website is a girl that has no leg, which assumes readers that the girl is a victim of a still-active bomb that was planted during the war. Obviously, the girl is a human rights victim and her picture moves me. As a consequence, one of the projects of hrw.org is involvement on writing letters to the secretary of United States to join the Land Mine Ban. The picture is effective in compelling readers into action, i.e. writing the letter. Therefore, the website does not only address a problem by informing readers but by asking their participation in the issue at hand. Aside from this , the website is not only giving information about issues happening in U.S, hrw.org also gives readers information regarding human right violations outside the United States. For instance, the website covers the violations happening on in Xianjiang, China. There have been cases of men and teenagers disappearing; sadly, their parents and families are afraid to do protest against government to recover their loved ones. It is shown in the picture that there are two mothers who are crying and helpless for they seem to have no solution towards the situation. Again, the organization used the pictures to appeal to the viewers emotions. If the audience cannot make up his mind on what issue to participate, one can simply make donations that would surely help in any of the issues being presented by hrw.org. The only comment that I have observed on the website is that the design of the website is quite colorless. It looks dull with the white background and it has a certain simplicity that can still be improved to present a more formal organization. The website has met four out of the five criteria set. It has clear explanation of the problem, it has a strong appeal to the reader’s emotions, the information presented is credible and directives on how people could get involved is clearly stated. Although the web page is functional, it does not have an attractive layout and design for the site. The webpage could have more colors that could contrast or highlight the provoking pictures. As I’ve said, there is still room for improvement. As a conclusion, I recommend people to use this website if they have questions and need information regarding human right issues. Issues such as human trafficking is a crucial issue since children at very young age are made into prostitutes or recruited for war. Aside from being involved politically, the audience can be able to also support the organization by charity. This is a very positive value for people around the world, because this organization has helped saving peoples’ lives. Over-all, the website has effectively done its purpose of informing the world that human rights is an important issue that everyone must get involved with. Bibliography: Hrw.org.Retrieved from< http:// hrw.org> Read More